Why do stars twinkle

Have you ever looked up at the night sky and wondered, why do the stars twinkle as they do? The stars appear to twinkle as they reflect light from the sun. Light travels at 186,282 miles per second (299,792 km/sec) through space. When light hits something, such as a star or planet, some of its energy gets absorbed and reflected out into space. This happens because the atoms in the object absorb certain wavelengths of light and then reemit them at longer wavelengths. This phenomenon is called Rayleigh scattering, and it also explains why the sky looks blue. We look at this phenomenon in closer detail and work out exactly why stars twinkle and shine bright as they do. How Does A Star Form? Stars are formed when massive clouds of gas collapse under their gravity. As this occurs, the temperature rises until hydrogen becomes ionized. At this point, electrons become stripped off of the protons in the hydrogen atom. Once this occurs, the matter can no longer support itself against gravity and collapses inward on itself. As the cloud collapses, the heat generated by gravitational contraction causes the material to begin radiating energy outward. This process continues until the mass reaches about 10 solar masses. At this point, nuclear fusion begins within the core. Nuclear fusion converts hydrogen nuclei into helium nuclei, releasing tremendous amounts of energy. When the star has reached the main sequence stage, it will have expanded enough to fuse carbon into oxygen. After this...

Some stars appear to flicker between different colours as their light is distorted by our atmosphere, as this composite image of Rigel, Betelgeuse and Sirius shows. Here, the differences in colour are picked up by a DSLR camera. Credit: Amanda Cross There is even a scientific term for stars' twinkling, and that's 'atmospheric scintillation'. This is the astronomical term for those quick changes in the apparent brightness of a star (more on this in our guide to A panorama showing the Milky Way (centre) and planets. Mars is bright to the left, Saturn is dimmer and bright Jupiter is right. The arcing line joining the planets defines the arc of the ecliptic. Credit: Alan Dyer / Stocktrek Images / Getty Images Why do stars twinkle, but planets don't? Stars twinkle while planets don't because stars are so much further away from Earth. This makes them appear as concentrated points of light, and that light is more easily disturbed by the effects of Earth's atmosphere.

Stars are an immense wonder, but they have so many fascinating properties that leave us with many questions and sometimes feel left clueless. Everyone loves to stargaze every now and then, and some of you may have seen them change color from time to time. So, why do stars twinkle red and blue? Stars twinkle red and blue due to refraction. This is when the star’s light enters the Earth’s atmosphere, and it spreads in various directions due to multiple winds, temperature changes, and atmospheric changes such as differences in density.Astronomically, this is known as scintillation. Scintillation is effectively, where our astronomical observations are affected by atmospheric effects. There’s a lot going on here. And it all results in quite frankly, breathtaking views for us here on Earth. If you keep reading, you’ll also find out why stars can twinkle in different colors, and why some stars do not appear to! Table of Contents • • • • Why Is There A Star Flashing Blue And Red? A star flashing blue and red is going through a refraction process known as scintillation. Alongside density, temperature, and other atmospheric changes, these factors cause the light entering Earth’s atmosphere to change paths, which usually end up in different colors, primarily red and blue. When the wind in the atmosphere is moving inwards and outwards, the light traveling from the star is refracted, causing a chromatic aberration that makes the stars look like they’re twinkling different colors. Addit...

If you look up at the stars, these bright points appear to twinkle. But what makes stars appear to twinkle in the night sky? In fact, stars do not actually twinkle; they only look like it when seen from the surface of Earth due to the effects of our atmosphere. And if the stars twinkle, why don’t planets twinkle as well? While some stars physically change in On the other hand, the more rapid changes of scintillation come about long after the light leaves the star. So, the light waves traveling through our atmosphere diffract as they pass through air pockets at different temperatures. As the light waves come from a single point, the effect can make a star’s position or brightness appear to change. Our atmosphere reaches around 10,000 km / 6,214 mi up from the Earth’s surface. The air gets blown around within the atmosphere, with hot air rising and mixing with cooler air. When there is an imbalance (agitation) in the atmosphere, the start’s light will deflect in several directions. So, the stars appear to twinkle due to the light from those stars passing through our atmosphere, which is bent and distorted by varying densities and air temperatures. There is even a scientific term for For some, the concept of the twinkling star is rather romantic, conjuring up memories of one of the most well-known nursery rhymes of all time. Yet, for astronomers, the effect can be a nuisance as it can cause the image seen through a telescope to jump or shake around. Similar effects can be see...

Janelle Barowski Janelle is a tutor for Nursing and Health Administration. She has an Associate's degree in Nursing from Middlesex College. She also has a Bachelors and a Masters degree in Nursing Administration and Leadership from Western Governors University. She currently is a practicing pediatric and geriatric nurse. • Instructor Twinkling Stars If you step outside on a clear night, you can see thousands of stars. Unless, of course, you live in a big city that blocks out the night sky with its own light pollution. Barring that, you are sure to see lots of stars winking at you. You may wish upon a star and sing Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star at that moment, but do stars really twinkle? And if they do, why? • • • 2.7K views Scintillation is the distortion of light from stars before it reaches our eyes. This causes the twinkling. The Earth's atmosphere consists of various gases and particles that are held close to the Earth by its gravitational pull. The different layers are held together to protect the inhabitants of Earth from UV radiation, regulate temperature, provide a buffer between Earth and space. When light passes through these layers and particles, it bends as it makes its way to a person's eyes. The Earth's atmosphere causes the pinpoint of light from the stars to twinkle. The light from the stars is refracted into two separate points in space. This very slight change in direction causes the light to travel in a zig-zag pattern on the way to an individual's eyes...

Twinkling, also called scintillation, is a generic term for variations in astronomical scintillation; for objects within the atmosphere, the phenomenon is termed terrestrial scintillation. In simple terms, twinkling of stars is caused by the passing of light through aperture averaging. While light from stars and other See also [ ] • Wang, Ting-I; Williams, Donn; InTech, May 1, 2005. • NASA.gov. • Sofieva, V. F.; Sofieva, A. S.; et al. [ permanent dead link]. Journal of Geophysical Research 112. • VanCleave, Janice; JVC's Science Fair Projects, May 2, 2010. • noaa.gov. • Chun, M.; Avila, R; Astronomical Site Evaluation in the Visible and Radio Range, Astronomical Society of the Pacific 266:72–78. • Perlot, N.; Fritzsche, D. elib – Electronic Library. • Andrews, C.; Phillips, R. L.; Hopen, C. (2000). "Aperture averaging of optical scintillations". Waves in Random Media. 10 (1): 53–70. • Wheelon, Albert D. (2003). Electromagnetic Scintillation: Volume 2, Weak Scattering. Cambridge University Press. 978-1-139-43960-2. • Kenyon, S.L.; Lawrence, M. et al; Astronomical Society of the Pacific 118, 924–932. • Ellison, M. W. (1952). "Why do Stars Twinkle?". Irish Astronomical Journal. 2 (1): 5–8. • Graham, John A. Scientific American, October 2005. • Byrd, Deborah; Earthsky, October 24, 2005.

If you gaze upward at the stars on a tranquil night, you’ll probably observe that these bright points of light appear to twinkle. However, in reality, stars don’t actually twinkle. Most people believe that stars twinkle because they are far away, but the truth is that it has more to do with Earth’s atmosphere. As starlight enters our dense and warm atmosphere, it becomes distorted by things like winds. This is what causes the light from a star to appear as though it’s twinkling when seen from the ground. In this article, we will explore this effect in greater detail. Why do stars twinkle? As mentioned earlier, it’s not the stars themselves that are twinkling. Instead, it’s the Earth’s atmosphere that causes this effect. When starlight enters our atmosphere, it encounters different layers of air with varying temperatures and densities. This can cause the light to bend or distort in random ways before reaching our eyes on the ground. These distortions are similar to the way heat waves can distort objects when viewed from far away on a hot day, causing them to appear as though they are shimmering or twinkling. In addition, winds high up in the atmosphere can also cause the starlight to twinkle. As the air moves, it can further bend and distort the star’s light before it reaches us. While it may be tempting to believe that twinkling stars are magical, the truth is that they are simply a product of Nevertheless, their delicate dance across the night sky is still a sight to beho...

If you’re feeling a little silly using the word twinkle over and over again, we can also use the scientific term: astronomical scintillation. You can’t feel it, but you’re carrying the entire weight of the atmosphere on your shoulders. Every single square inch of your skin is getting pushed by 15 pounds of pressure. And even though astronomers need our atmosphere to survive, it still drives them crazy. As it makes objects in space so much harder to see. Stars twinkle, I mean scintillate, because as light passes down through a volume of air, turbulence in the Earth’s atmosphere refracts light differently from moment to moment. From our perspective, the light from a star will appear in one location, then milliseconds later, it’ll be distorted to a different spot. First, they try to get above it. The Hubble Space Telescope is powerful because it’s outside the atmosphere. The mirror is actually a quarter the size of a large ground-based observatory, but without atmospheric distortion, Hubble can resolve galaxies billions of light-years away. The longer it looks, the more light it gathers. Astronomers project a powerful laser into the sky, creating an artificial star within their viewing area. Since they know what the artificial star should look like, they distort the telescope’s mirror with pistons canceling out the atmospheric distortion. While it’s not as good as actually launching a telescope into space, it’s much, much cheaper.

Twinkling, also called scintillation, is a generic term for variations in astronomical scintillation; for objects within the atmosphere, the phenomenon is termed terrestrial scintillation. In simple terms, twinkling of stars is caused by the passing of light through aperture averaging. While light from stars and other See also [ ] • Wang, Ting-I; Williams, Donn; InTech, May 1, 2005. • NASA.gov. • Sofieva, V. F.; Sofieva, A. S.; et al. [ permanent dead link]. Journal of Geophysical Research 112. • VanCleave, Janice; JVC's Science Fair Projects, May 2, 2010. • noaa.gov. • Chun, M.; Avila, R; Astronomical Site Evaluation in the Visible and Radio Range, Astronomical Society of the Pacific 266:72–78. • Perlot, N.; Fritzsche, D. elib – Electronic Library. • Andrews, C.; Phillips, R. L.; Hopen, C. (2000). "Aperture averaging of optical scintillations". Waves in Random Media. 10 (1): 53–70. • Wheelon, Albert D. (2003). Electromagnetic Scintillation: Volume 2, Weak Scattering. Cambridge University Press. 978-1-139-43960-2. • Kenyon, S.L.; Lawrence, M. et al; Astronomical Society of the Pacific 118, 924–932. • Ellison, M. W. (1952). "Why do Stars Twinkle?". Irish Astronomical Journal. 2 (1): 5–8. • Graham, John A. Scientific American, October 2005. • Byrd, Deborah; Earthsky, October 24, 2005.

Some stars appear to flicker between different colours as their light is distorted by our atmosphere, as this composite image of Rigel, Betelgeuse and Sirius shows. Here, the differences in colour are picked up by a DSLR camera. Credit: Amanda Cross There is even a scientific term for stars' twinkling, and that's 'atmospheric scintillation'. This is the astronomical term for those quick changes in the apparent brightness of a star (more on this in our guide to A panorama showing the Milky Way (centre) and planets. Mars is bright to the left, Saturn is dimmer and bright Jupiter is right. The arcing line joining the planets defines the arc of the ecliptic. Credit: Alan Dyer / Stocktrek Images / Getty Images Why do stars twinkle, but planets don't? Stars twinkle while planets don't because stars are so much further away from Earth. This makes them appear as concentrated points of light, and that light is more easily disturbed by the effects of Earth's atmosphere.